Be Back Soon
by Lils
Summary: The relationship of Remus and Tonks told through a series of post-it notes. One shot. Written for rt challenge on livejournal.


_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter.

_A/N_: Written for rtchallenge on livejournal. Figured I'd post it here as well.

* * *

In Tonks' opinion, it all started with Emmeline Vance. No one could drone on quite like she could. Tonks was certain of that. Well, maybe, Professor Binns could, but that was about it. She was a nice enough witch and all, but Tonks was fairly sure that if she had to listen to her a second longer she would fall asleep. Actually, she thought she might have drifted off for a few seconds at one point earlier. It would explain the glare Molly had been giving her.

She could feel the familiar haze of sleep threatening to overcome her again. Her eyes slowly began to close again. She dug through her pockets pulling out a spare bit of parchment and an old Muggle pen.

She hastily scribbled a quick "I'm bored" on the parchment and passed it to Remus. She wasn't quite sure why she passed it to Remus of all people, other than the fact that he was sitting closest to her. He always seemed so… boring. Knowing Remus, he would probably frown and ignore the note.

Instead he did two things that Tonks never would have expected him to do.

First, he smiled.

Second, he took out his own pen and quickly wrote a response back on the note and passed it back to her.

_Is that why you fell asleep earlier?_

Tonks blushed at the realization that she had actually fallen asleep and that Remus had been paying close enough attention to her to notice that she had fallen asleep.

That started a long tradition of note passing between the two of them during particularly boring Order meetings. Then it became a tradition during somewhat boring order meetings. Then the not-so-boring meetings. Then the interesting ones. And then there wasn't a single meeting that didn't pass without one of them writing a note.

_Wotcher, _she wrote a few months after the first note she'd written.

_Shouldn't you be paying attention?_

Tonks glanced over at Remus who was trying his best – yet, still failing – to maintain a serious expression on his face. The corners of his mouth were twitching. She knew he was trying hard not to smile. She jotted down a quick response.

_Shouldn't you?_

She hesitated instead of passing it back to Remus. She toyed with the idea of adding more. Something she had been playing around with in her head for weeks. Tentatively, in very small letters – in hopes, that if it was small enough, he might not see it – she added it.

_Fancy going out for dinner sometime? _

She glanced at the words, instantly wishing she could erase them. Remus was looking at her curiously now. She shifted the parchment away from him, so he couldn't see it. She considered crossing out the invitation, but it wouldn't do any good. He would still figure it out. He tended to be perceptive like that. And he would be able to tell that she had been acting funny right now. She closed her eyes and shoved the parchment back into Remus' hands. She kept them shut tightly, hoping that if she closed them long enough all of this would turn out to be some sort of dream. She felt Remus' hands brush over hers as he placed the piece of parchment on them. She braced herself for the rejection as she opened her eyes. She felt a mixture of astonishment and joy as she saw his reply.

_Okay._

After that the note passing began to increase even more. Whenever Tonks saw Remus, he always seemed to have a note ready for her. He would slip it into her hand as they said goodbye after a date or after a meeting. Tonks started to suspect at one point that he just had a pocket full of pre-written notes to give her. They usually contained some sort of sentiment along the lines of "I love you despite your extreme clumsiness."

Those slightly insulting confessions of love were always her favorites. She suspected that they were his too since he seemed to be fond of using them frequently whenever he passed her a note. She had come to expect them. It was always a surprise whenever he gave her one that didn't follow that pattern.

Although, there was a point when it became a surprise if he gave her any note at all. Not that she need a note to know what was coming.

Those were the only words that stood out in the entire note. She felt stunned at them. Hurt. She cried. She tore the note into as many pieces as she could. She refused to listen to him when he tried to talk about it. She left in a frenzy and spent the night looking through the old notes that they had passed.

She cried as she put a note on his refrigerator the next day.

_I don't care about any of those things._

He ignored that one. She thought that he might, but it didn't soften the blow when he did. She tried to talk to him about it after that. He ignored her too.

Months passed without a single note between the two of them.

And then there was a new one on the door of her flat shortly after Dumbledore's death.

_I'm sorry. _

She had suspected that that one would quickly become her favorite. And it was for awhile. She often liked to remove it from the box that she kept the old notes in and look over it again and again. Remus often teased her for it.

"It's my favorite," she protested.

His response was always the same.

"Wait until the next one."

The next ones were always nice. But none ever seemed to evoke the same emotions as the "I'm sorry" one. She never felt the same elation from any of the new notes; she never thought Remus could write one that she would like better.

Well, she had been wrong about things before.

_Marry me?_

Her first thought was that that note was a joke. He couldn't be serious.

"You can't propose to a person through a note taped to the refrigerator, can you?" Tonks asked herself.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of gold a few centimeters below the note. A ring. An engagement ring. Apparently, it was possible to propose to a person via a note on the refrigerator.

That one easily became her favorite one afterwards. Her favorite one that she received. She had a personal favorite when it came to the ones she had written herself.

_I'm pregnant. _

Of course, she had expected Remus would have a different reaction when he read it. She'd thought he would be, well, happier. Not that he seemed unhappy. He was the same. More pensive, but the same. She wondered if he had even read the note for awhile.

The note-giving gradually subsided like it had before. And she knew what was coming. Again. Just like it had the time before. It hadn't been a surprise when he left. She'd been expecting it. Not that that made it any better. Or lessened the pain she felt.

He came back sooner that time though. Tonks had been reluctant to let him come back this time. Proof that not everything could be healed with a note. Some things had to be fixed with much groveling, begging, and an eventual giving in on her part.

And the note-passing became more frequent again. More frequent than it ever had been in the past. Their fridge became covered with things like:

_Teddy's crying. He wants you._

_I love you despite your extreme clumsiness._

Or…

_Hogwarts. Battle. Be back soon. _


End file.
